“Ineffective,” Veteran, Primary Grade Teacher in Tennessee Resigns
As per a recent article in The Tennessean, it seems yet another teacher has resigned, this time from the 1st grade – a grade in which teacher-level value-added normally does not “count.” This teacher, a 15-year career 1st grade teacher, was recently categorized as “ineffective” in terms of “adding value” to her students’ learning and achievement, as her district added a new test to start holding primary grade teachers accountable for their value-added as well. To read her full letter of resignation and the conditions driving her decision, click here (http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/local/sumner/2014/06/03/defines-ineffective-teacher/9918539/)
Thirty-five percent of her evaluation score was based on student growth or value-added as determined by the Tennessee Value-Added Assessment System (TVAAS), often called outside the state of Tennessee (where it was originally developed) the Education Value-Added Assessment System (EVAAS). Both of these systems should be of increasing familiarity to readers/followers of this blog.
But given a different test recently introduced to help evaluate more teachers like her, again in the primary grades for which no other state-level tests exist (like in grades 3-8), just this year she “received a growth score of 1, [after which she] was placed on a list of ineffective teachers needing additional coaching.” Ironically, the person to serve as her mentor, to help her become better than an “ineffective teacher,” was her own student teacher from a few years prior. It seems her new teacher mentor was not able to increase her former-mentor’s effectiveness in due time, however.
But here’s the real issue: In this case, and exponentially growing numbers of cases like this across the country, the district decided to use a national versus state test (i.e., the SAT 10) which can (but should not) be used to test students in kindergarten and 1st“Ineffective,” Veteran, Primary Grade Teacher in Tennessee Resigns |: